Ghosts
by eolhcsullivan452
Summary: A few years after the Game, Neku thinks he sees a Noise in Shiki's room. When Neku shoots at it, it sets off a crazy chain of events that no one could have predicted. Neku's gotten his psychs back, all of Shibuya thinks ghosts are responsible for what happened in Shiki's room, and Shiki feels off kilter. Thankfully, Neku is with Shiki through everything, but just what is going on?


**Author's Note: So despite what the beginning of this story might have you believe, this story is insanely random and cracky. I'm not gonna lie. However, it's done for the sake of humor and fluff, so if you can deal with a little insanity, I think you'll hopefully enjoy this :)**

**Ghosts**

Shiki looked at herself in her vanity mirror, as she fiddled with her bangs; she needed to get the annoying things out of the way so she could successfully make her longer hair look like a rose. Eri—bless the girl—had done Shiki's hair in such a manor for the previous homecoming dance, and Shiki had loved it so much, she had opted to rip the "special occasion" vibe off of the hairdo and wear it all the time.

Even though she was truly glad she'd let her hair grow out (she'd had more boys hit on her since she had, but she was even happier when she saw Neku want to punch their lights out, all the while telling her she looked "nice"), the fact was that Shiki valued her former short hair. If nothing else, her new do kept her hair out of her way when she worked on new designs with Eri. Rhyme had also pointed out to Shiki that she looked more professional with her hair in a bun, so that would probably mean more future clients, too!

Yes, Shiki's new hairstyle was completely worth it! Even if it took her a much longer time to get ready in the morning, and even if she now attended to her long locks much more than she would fix a seam in Mr. Mew's own black fur. As this thought had Shiki worrying her lip (and almost forced her to choke on the bobby pin in her mouth simultaneously), Shiki thought it was as good a time as any to lovingly pat Mr. Mew on the head, but tell him that, "If you feel too bad, I can give you a dye treatment; I can turn you pink, and lose the urge to throttle Neku whenever he calls you a 'pig'."

The un-amused expression on Mr. Mew's face was answer enough for Shiki, so shrugging her shoulders regretfully and nonchalantly, she finally got her bangs to stay out of her face; she was headed away from her mirror now (with a satisfied smile on her face), and was just about to pass over to her model horses and stroke them for luck (her own Hachiko-ish morning ritual, if you will), but one last thing in the mirror caught Shiki's eye. The person reflected in it.

Yes, Neku was standing behind her, it seemed. Though Neku standing in front of the pink, short door seemed wrong for many reasons (mainly because Neku despised pink and it clashed with his hair), this still wasn't a surprising thing at all to Shiki. After all, Neku had snuck into her room more than once since they'd started dating, and this was much more innocent than that. He must have been here to pick her up for her school, but if he was in her room instead of waiting with her parents, did that mean...

Oh, crap! She was running late, wasn't she? She was going to get a demerit this time for sur-

As it was, Shiki never got to finish this sentence for many reasons. One, was for the way Neku was mouthing something at Shiki that she couldn't make out; as she cocked her head to the side, she couldn't get the feeling of dread to leave her stomach. Two, Neku had pulled a pistol from his pocket and was leveling it at her (thankfully, he didn't look gleeful like Joshua apparently had when he'd shot Neku), and three... Neku tripped over his own feet, and the bullet came soaring straight at Shiki.

Feeling adrenaline fill her up in a way it hadn't since the Game, Shiki had the strange desire to not move, but stay exactly where she was. Okay, so she might have ducked her head and covered her face from the glass that was currently raining down on her (it also seemed like white plaster from the vanity was getting caught in her hair now, too), but she didn't move at all except for that.

As Neku seemed to get his wits about himself, and came dashing to catch Shiki's shaking body in his arms, he seemed glad she hadn't moved, too. It had saved her. "I didn't mean to shoot at you, Shiki, I swear! I just accidentally pulled the trigger when I fell. It's like Sylvia in that freakin' 'In Time' movie..."

Here Neku trailed off from what he'd been saying, as he ran his hands over a sharp indention Shiki now felt dissecting her forehead. Oh. So she'd been cut, after all? Running her own hand along the jagged edges of her cut, Shiki was surprised to find that she didn't find blood so much as glass (that was somewhat embedding in her skin now). "Shiki, I think your glasses saved your life. The bullet seemed to graze over the left side of them, and though it slightly broke them... You're alive and well. Come on, we need to get you to the hospital, though."

And the way Neku helped Shiki to her feet after that, and held onto her as lightly as she'd ever felt him do so... Well, it spoke volumes to Shiki. It said just how much he loved her, and all the things he could never say out loud. Though Neku had improved tremendously since the Game, there was still no denying he was soft-spoken. His actions, however, said it all.

As the warmth of the thought ended up invading Shiki's heart, she felt herself leaning more and more into Neku. She felt... strangely tired. Taking this as some sort of a cue, Neku scooped Shiki up into his arms before she'd even finished noting how exhausted she was. Feeling surprisingly giddy, Shiki couldn't help but cackle when Neku carried her over the threshold. Maybe they'd be getting married soon, if this were any sort of sign.

"Umm, Shiki? Why are you actually acting like you're high now?" Though there was amusement and annoyance in his tone (Neku was no doubt remembering the whole shorts debacle), Shiki could still note clearly that the primary motion was concern. Neku was concerned for her? How sweet! Was he thinking she was getting a concussion? Well, Shiki could understand it if he was. Why else would she think about The Phantom of the Opera at a time like this, when Neku accidentally hit her feet against the wind chime on her stairs. Okay, so the Phantom had hit Christine's feet on the curtain when he'd carried her, but still.

"Neku, you tell me why you had a gun trained on me in the first place." And though Shiki asked, the truth was she already pretty much knew. Since Neku would never actually hurt her, that only left one option, didn't it? At the moment, though, Shiki didn't care for Neku's answer. All she cared about was holding onto Neku's shirt, and getting closer to him so she could drink in his cologne.

"Because I thought I saw Noise behind you somehow! I was going to shoot it, if I wasn't hallucinating, but accidentally shot at _you_ instead. You know, I bet Joshua was just messing with me; to get me to 'save' you, so I'd propose or some shit. It would just be my luck, right? I started caring around this gun to be on par with him if he got trigger happy again, but-"

As it was, Shiki never got to hear what Neku was going to say next. Her energy completely spent, as shock clawed away at her, she couldn't stay awake any longer and lost consciousness. However, Shiki did note two things before she went under. One, was that most of her hair had come down now. But most importantly, she realized it looked like Neku was using some psych to keep her conscious? It would make sense, of course, since she had a concussion, but how would he do it?

In the end, Shiki wouldn't be able to think more on the matter until she and Neku arrived at the hospital, and she went from being half awake to fully awake. The terrified and worn look on Neku's face was proof enough that he had done what she'd thought he had.

_I love you, Neku._ If he was becoming more like Joshua somehow, Shiki could only hope he'd read her mind and hear the words. _We'll get through this._ And in response to her unspoken words, it seemed, Neku was now the one that was out like a light. _Maybe Neku and I should stop watching movies together_, Shiki mused. _Especially if Sylvia's fails at using a gun in "In Time" led to this._

...

As Shiki sat at her typical lunch table in the quad with Neku, Eri, Beat, Rhyme (who was now a Freshman), and possibly Joshua if he decided to show up... Well, Shiki had to acknowledge that a lot had happened in a day, but then nothing had really changed at all. On one hand, her hair was now being uncooperative in another way. Instead of doing the rose like thing she loved, it was curlier and looked a bit messy. How her hair had made a curly bun when the strands were perfectly straight, she still didn't know. Less people were hitting on her too, she noticed. That had to be the reason, right? Either that, or they...

They had really taken what her parents had to say to her heart, and were now "training". Ugh. Ugh. Ugh! This thought was such that Shiki had the desire to rip her own hairs out (pretty rose bun be damned), and have a fit similar to one of Uzuki's. Apparently, Shiki's father had been outside when the whole accidental shooting had taken place, and had seen it through Shiki's bedroom window. Fortunately, Shiki had been able to explain to her father that Neku had been trying to save her from something, and amazingly enough the Noise (if it had been a Noise), had left behind some bizarre residue behind. In short, Shiki's family believed her and Neku's story, but now he thought ghosts were taking over Shibuya; they also thought that the "psychic Neku" should have been going on a pilgrimage to stop said ghosts. Seriously. She couldn't tell her parents about the Game, but they'd believe in something like that?! Where was the rational life she'd once led? She was more than sure that Joshua was sitting on his throne having a good laugh.

"Yo, I still can' believe that symbol was tellin' us to carry around guns to use on ghosts. This is so wack!" If Shiki had been up for anything but burying her head into her table in aggravation, she would have been nodding vigorously at Beat in agreement. He'd taken the words out of her mouth completely. At the moment, it seemed as though Shibuya was no longer a war zone. Showing just how fast a rumor could spread, it seemed everyone knew some sort of "ghost" sighting had happened at Shiki's, and most knew Neku had fought it, and girls and guys alike were now flirting with him even more than they had been previously (it seemed his "don't-give-a-damn attitude" was as sought after as the Prince's).

"I think you mean 'assembly', Beat," Rhyme told her brother helpfully, as she gave him a warm smile, while seeming prepared to give him the Heimlich if he didn't chew that third crepe correctly. "What I don't get, though, is why more people are after Neku now. If he did 'save Shiki from ghosts' or whatever, you would think more people would accept that they're an idem. Most people don't risk their lives for just anybody." And here, Rhyme looked so downhearted and forlorn (it was a sharp contrast with the beautiful, meadow like feeling their courtyard was emitting), that Shiki momentarily rose up from her own misery in an attempt to cheer the disappointed Rhyme.

"But people want what they don't have, right? That, sadly, probably ups the ante for people wanting Neku and Shiki now, Rhyme. My question is why Shibuya looks so sun-shiny lately."

Hmm. Eri did have a _point_. Though Shiki couldn't care less about the people who "liked" her other than Neku (though their responses to her appearance did show that she and Eri were doing great on their designs), she did have to wonder why Shibuya was so bright lately. Like right now, their lunch area looked beautiful. The sun was shining brilliantly in white wisps (though surprisingly not blinding), the grass was a lovely green that looked more like flower leaves rather than their usual browning grass...

In fact, the chirping blue jays seemed more inclined to play with a french fry together than fight over it, so what could it mean? If Shibuya was like this, it had to mean Joshua was, right? And Joshua only ever seemed to be happy for one reason: Neku. Was he, perhaps, trying to make Neku popular to make him uncomfortable? Surely Joshua would have a good laugh at that, and Shiki wouldn't put it past him to-

"Shiki? Your bandage is coming off. Here."

"Huh?" Before Shiki could properly respond to her Neku's words, he was already reaching across the table to smooth it back over her forehead. For a moment, she'd wondered how he'd get the Band-Aid to sick again when the rosebud (her medicine of choice) had come off, but leave it to psych-genius-Neku to prove her wrong. Even in the RG he had a power over her. And as Neku massaged her forehead to either get the Band-Aid to stay, or make the soreness go away, Shiki found she couldn't help but look into Neku's face lovingly while he blushed and had to look away. She hadn't missed the look of love there, though.

And as happy as she was for the moment, Shiki realized she would have been much happier if she didn't fear he really _was_ using psychic abilities to help her. Really that was what they should have been worried about, but she was too worried to voice it. What if the words made it real? After all, they had no real proof he was using psychs...

"I feel like Katniss when Peeta put the medicine on her cut; the medicine she got from the cornucopia," Shiki muttered to get away from her worrying thoughts.

And even though Neku gave Shiki a faux withering look and muttered, "You need to watch _less_ movies, Stalker," the way Neku closed his fingers around Shiki's seemed to say there was nothing he'd want to do more, but curl up with her and watch a said movie. It seemed that Neku was giving Shiki back her unvoiced "I love you" from the hospital in his own, unique way.

Shiki noticed as she blushed (and it got her a bit warm and sweaty), that her hair really _was_ curling now. She just couldn't win, could she?

...

Shiki took the moment to take off her shoes, as she paused behind the sliding door to her house, and prepared to lead Neku up to her bedroom for studying. On one hand, her parents were so into the silly ghost speculations that she vaguely wondered if they were Danny Fenton's parents incarnate. Maybe Neku was right; maybe she did need to stop watching movies, or American movies to be exact. They were giving her ridiculous thoughts, weren't they?

But then again, if it could lead to her filling her parents in on everything... Maybe it was worth it. Before, Shiki had never thought on filling her mom and dad in on what had happened to her (Joshua was good at modifying memories as everyone had learned), but now she almost felt as though she wanted to. She knew, though, as Neku put a hand on her shoulder concernedly, that she would never do so.

As Neku clicked his tongue against the roof of his mouth, Shiki knew he was about to ask her what was wrong. That was another thing she'd never allow happen. Turning to Neku with her eyes closed and her lips split into a grin, Shiki put her hands behind her back; in her most chipper voice, she grabbed onto Neku's hand, and began leading him up the stairs to her room. Her parents finally catching wind of her were shouting thanks to Neku for saving their daughter, and it was for this reason Shiki took to scurrying up the stairs with Neku even faster. They were so freaking embarrassing!

Waving her hands to shake off her parents' silly words, Shiki prayed they'd finally get it into their heads to stop being superstitious and treating Neku like the messiah. Yeah... She wasn't getting her hopes up.

"Honestly, Shiki. Don't worry about it. I'm sure it'll end up being like that whole 'frazney' Pepper Ann episode in no time flat. It'll all blow over, you'll see."

Surprisingly, the first words out of Shiki's mouth in response to that were, "So you do watch United States TV, you liar!"

Of course, when Neku ended up sauntering over to Shiki's bed and raising an eyebrow, Shiki's first response was to clap a hand over her mouth in embarrassment and avert her eyes away from Neku. If Shiki had thought there was no such thing as karma, she was now forced to admit she'd been very wrong. Instead of leaving Shiki alone about what she'd said, Neku pulled onto Shiki's hand to force her to sit down with him. Was this… Was this how Neku had somewhat felt when she'd stalked him during the Game? If so, she could somewhat understand his aggravation with her. As great as having a boyfriend—her Neku was—it was a little maddening to know he'd always be there to hear the stupid things she'd say.

"Neku," Shiki whined, as she tried to hide under her blue comforter (ignoring the fact it was the exact same color of Neku's shirt), "I'm sorry I called you a lia-"

"But I am a liar, Shiki," Neku remarked in a way that was surprisingly cheerful for him. Lifting his book bag off of his shoulder, Neku dug inside it to grab their math textbook. As he brought it over to Shiki's bedside table at the foot of her bed (that seemed to also have glass on it now), Neku took a moment to bonk Shiki on the head with it. Though she was only assuming, it was probably safe to say he was acting to remind her why he was there in the first place.

Right. They had to study for Algebra. Shiki might have said something then (because she somewhat tutored Neku, as he was still a bit apathetic when it came to school), but Neku cut her off with a particular smirk. Moving one of his orange spikes out of his face (in a non-irritated motion for once), Neku remarked, "I mean, I lied to myself and everyone all during the Game and before it. You know, with that talk about not caring about others? So I suppose it's alright that you call me a liar."

And though Shiki wanted to argue she wouldn't, as it was the worst pet name ever, she felt her train of thought leaving her rapidly when Neku grabbed onto her hand again, but then moved closer to place a kiss on her cheek. "We should-" Shiki stammered rather embarrassedly. Though she and Neku had kissed many times in the previous years (and he'd only just given her a peck on the cheek; nothing to write home about), the fact remained that they needed to study.

And… Though Shiki's parents were currently giving Neku hero worship, if they come up and saw something like that, they might ban him from seeing her, and that wouldn't do in the least, would it? At least Shiki knew that no matter what happened, she'd always find a way to be with Neku and vice versa. As Shiki tapped a finger on her chin, she idly wondered if Joshua would be proud for how strong her and Neku's Souls still were.

"Yeah, let's study. If nothing else, learning math is fun because I know Pi-Face is erased now. Who knows? Maybe I'll actually end up learning more of it than he did." And though Shiki didn't doubt Neku's drive in the least, he was kidding himself if he thought he'd end up doing something that wasn't art related in some way.

Feeling rather cheeky at the moment, Shiki opened up the blinds to the picture window directly in front of Neku. As he squinted, cursed, and the false honesty was washed off his face, Shiki batted the air playfully at Neku's silliness. Though she could all but hear a growl forming between his teeth, it seemed not even Neku was able to fight Shiki's claim when she said, "And as the light shows you for what you really are, it seems you really are a liar, Neku."

Though Neku was very much resembling a cherry with his blush now, to which Shiki had to laugh at him merrily (it was hard to one up Neku, and she would cherish this moment), he didn't seem to be completely ready to lose their mental battle just yet. Shoving the blanket off of Shiki (perhaps to demonstrate he now needed it to hide his own face), Neku looked at Shiki with one of the most cross expressions she'd ever seen. At least she knew he was faking it, though. "Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm a liar, but you're a stalker. I think that makes you worse," and though Shiki stuck her tongue out at Neku for his cruel comment, the ginger carried on completely unperturbed; he seemed to be a lot like Joshua in that way. "Anyway, let's get some studying done, shall we?"

And though Shiki sighed disappointedly (she really wasn't in the mood to do homework; especially on such a lovely day), she still went about clearing the bedside table of its spools of thread, fabrics, and sequins. Neku especially raised his eyebrows at the sequins that had also been used to decorate a fish mask she'd made when she was five. Squirming a little uncomfortable under Neku's scrutiny, Shiki muttered. "Okay, so that's my one fashion-y thing that hasn't changed. I like glistening, turquoise sequins and will only use that color. Sue me, all right? Now can we get back to wo-"

Neku's answer to Shiki's query was to pull on her own shirt collar (that, by fault of Neku, had been getting bigger and bigger; he needed to stop rubbing off on her clothes wise), and to plant a quick kiss on her lips. Since she'd been in the middle of saying something, the kiss ended up being open mouthed, and so very nice. Oh wow, was Neku holding her? He still rarely liked being hugged. This was a great feeling he was giving. A great-

Wait. Had he just kissed her to shut her up? The jerk! Pulling away from Neku with her eye twitching (to which Neku guffawed), Shiki grabbed some of the sequins out of her bag and threw them at every inch of Neku's face she could find. Eventually, he was able to restrain her flailing arms, but to Shiki, the oddest thing about the day was that Neku had glitter on his face instead of sequins. How had that happened?

"You jerk!" Shiki bellowed from below Neku, who was holding her down against the bed so she'd stop throwing punches. "What happened to all of the, 'I love hearing you talk, Shiki'? You are such a liar, Neku Sakuraba! Seriously? Shutting me up by kissing me? Now the kisses won't be special anymo-"

And though Shiki really did mean to give Neku a tongue lashing so he'd listen to her like a good boyfriend should, there was no denying the laughter bubbling up in her own stomach now, and before she could get away from Neku, she was suddenly rolling onto her side and laughing hysterically. Well, drat. There was no way he was going to take her rant seriously now. That was too ba-

Taking the initiative that Shiki's laughing was keeping her from doing, Neku finally succeeded in moving the sequins and glitter (it seemed she _had_ spilled some gold dust on her table) away from their textbooks so they could begin studying. With one particular accurate poke to Shiki's side (she hated when he did that!), she was done laughing, and back to hitting Neku again. At least he'd sobered her up.

"Will you stop hitting me, Crazy Woman? I'm trying to help you with your homework. Some tutor _you've_ turned out to be, by the way."

And though Shiki knew that she really ought to be working on her schoolwork, she suddenly couldn't care less about it. They could just work on it in study hall, anyway. Her time with Neku now… It was too precious to give up. Calming down her raging emotions (she felt as though she was concussed again or something, but that was just what love was all about), Shiki sat up beside Neku on the bed; putting a hand on his cheek, the seamstress looked lovingly into his eyes, and decided there was nothing she'd rather do then talk to this amazing boy. She needed a reason, though. She didn't want his head to get too inflated, did she; it was for this reason Shiki told him, "You know, Neku. Let's just hold off until tomorrow, 'kay? As much as I love fighting with you, I really don't want to have another fight about positives and negatives."

Thought that screaming match between them had been particularly fun (Shiki had felt as though she was playing the flash card game, "Around the World" like she had when she was in grade school), there was no denying that her and Neku could get a little too angry sometimes. Seriously, though. Where in the world had he heard that two negatives _didn't_ make a positive? Sure his reasoning of, "When in life do you come out of two bad experiences and say, 'that was positive'?" had been amusing, but…

"Shiki are you feeling okay? You seem very fixed on your hair lately. Especially on the part near your bangs."

Huh? Well, what do you know? She was subconsciously putting her hair behind her ear, but only to take it out again. She'd been having strange new habits with her hair recently, hadn't she? On the inside, Shiki hoped it meant nothing, but deep down, she knew the truth. She hadn't exactly kept up with what she'd learned from the Game, had she? So was that why-

Neku, unaware of Shiki's musings (and seeming to start to panic at her silence), put a hand on his neck while he looked away from Shiki awkwardly. "I don't even know why you wear that bun if your bangs don't want to cooperate with it. You look beautiful anyway, but when you wear your hair like that… Well, you've been looking like Isabel from 'Roswell' lately. She wore her hair like that after killing someone, and sort of falling apart, so it sort of makes me worry when you wear it."

And there it was! Amazingly enough, Neku didn't seem privy to it at all, but there was no denying the light in his hand now was the same one he'd used for telekinesis in the Game. Shiki felt as though… As though he was now using it to move her.

She tiredly sank into the bed, and into Neku's arms. She would have liked to believe that it was exhausted-ness that had done it, but it was telekinesis, wasn't it? Neku was pushing down a part of Shiki that she'd been stupid and let out.

"Shiki?" Neku asked worriedly, as Shiki's head lolled to the side and hit Neku square in the chin. More and more, she was having to use him to support herself, and though she meant to explain it all to Neku, Shiki found the words wouldn't come. Neku must have noticed that, too, because all too soon he was in panic mode again, but in typical Neku fashion, he tried to brush it off. "You look sad. Like when I beat you in Tin Pin. But we haven't been playing Tin Pin, so why-"

"Oh, Neku, dear. Your affinity for hiding your pain beneath dark humor still amuses me to no end. But don't fool yourself; you know what's wrong with this girl."

"Joshua!" It was, indeed, Joshua that's voice had come from literally nowhere, and who was now appearing in Shiki's room in a swarm of light. As Joshua was the Composer, the light he immersed himself in seemed to be the incarnation of life. At its presence, Shiki felt a little more awake, as she tried to sit up with Neku (and undoubtedly prayed alongside him that Joshua wasn't up to something), but even the Composer's massive power wasn't enough to give her enough of a push.

It was crazy, really. The power radiating off of him was so immense, that Shiki could feel it as plain as the nose on her face. She wondered how anyone could be in Yoshiya's presence and not perceive him. In her peripheral vision, Shiki could have sworn she saw Mr. Mew become animated again, and walk over to Joshua for a closer look, for that matter. Shaking her head to rid herself of the dumb thought (it was Neku who was getting psychs again, not her), Shiki returned her attention to the scene with Neku and Joshua.

"If you knew there was something wrong with her, why didn't you-"

"Because as much as I value your _friendship_, dear, I'm not your personal genie. I had other matters to contend with. In fact, this whole ordeal doesn't even merit my assistance, but it seems you're too confounded to figure it out yourself, so here we are. You would have made a terrible Composer, Neku. Anyway, it seems as though sweet Shiki has had a ghost of former emotions return to her."

"What? You son of a bitch! So much is messing up, and you don't even care?! How can you not care that I'm most likely getting psychs back in response to your Game? How can you not car-"

And though Shiki found she wasn't able to do much at the moment, she was able to roll her eyes upon seeing Neku stand in front of Joshua with his fist drawn. When her dense boyfriend failed to acknowledge Shiki's eye roll, she went for the next best thing: she nudged Neku in the arm with her head. Honestly, couldn't his psychs wait for a moment? She was… She was-"

Neku was gazing at Shiki concernedly now, and as guilt appeared on his face, Shiki instantly wished she could take it away; that she could just go back a few days and erase all of her stupidity, but she sadly couldn't. So, instead, she allowed herself to nestle into the crook of Neku's arm; at least his hold would keep her from falling backwards.

Speaking of backwards, it seemed as though something had fallen forward: the paint she'd thought of painting Mr. Mew with. Oops. When she'd jostled Neku, she must have knocked it off, and now… Now it had landed on Joshua's feet. If it had hurt him, Yoshiya didn't let it show. Instead, he lifted up the dye, and opened it with a particularly devilish look on his face. For a moment, Shiki thought he might paint her pink, but he didn't. Instead, he dangled the coloring agent in front of Neku's face.

"The problem is simple," Joshua went on to explain with his usual arrogant air. "A certain Ms. Misaki has somewhat gone back to the way she was before the Game. You see, she's giving into other people's wants, and that's the problem. It's putting all of these negative emotions in her, because she knows it's not what _she_ wants, and therefore your girl is turning into a Noise. It seems instead of releasing Noise, the amount of Creativity Shiki has is making the usually released Noise combine with her Noise Self. That is, the Noise she could turn into were she a Reaper. Anyway, as long as Shiki goes back to looking like she wants to, she'll be fine. In fact, right now even her affliction is self-induced. Remember what you learned from the Game, Shiki."

And there it was, wasn't it? It was exactly like she'd just figured out, and it had been her own fault, too. Honestly, it had been stupid to not be herself again, but the problem was it was a hard distinction to make. She didn't mind the long hair (that people seemed to prefer on her) per se, but she did support short hair more. To think, such a simple thing had made her forget to be comfortable in her own skin. Worse, was that she'd nearly gone Noise, and Neku… She'd dragged him into it all, too. Ugh. She was such a menace! If he ever felt bad about nearly killing her again, she was going to have to remind him of all of this.

That was, if her parents didn't rush in and see "Ghost Joshua" bathed in white. With the day she was having, Shiki wouldn't have put it past the universe to allow something like that to happen.

"Wait!" Neku called out, when Joshua began fading again (no doubt, he sensed his work was done, and was headed back to the Dead God's Pad). Though Joshua was only a few inches in front of Neku, it seemed the Composer's proxy still wasn't able to reach his friend.

For a moment, Shiki was taken back to the time when Neku had reached for her when she was to be brought back to life. The scene was different now, but Shiki couldn't deny she felt a bout of sadness that it was only she that could get Neku to stop being so hostile around Josh. Though he only acted that way in accordance to Joshua, it seemed that Neku and Joshua were stuck in a permanent tug-of-war.

To Joshua's credit, he didn't seem at all interested in what Neku had to say, so maybe it was okay that he hadn't heard what Neku was planning to articulate, but Neku…

"Aaaaaaaaand, there's my sign that I shouldn't ever thank that jerk. He didn't even tell me what was up with my powers coming back! Oh well." And with a wistful expression that Neku clearly meant to hide from Shiki, he turned to his girlfriend with a stern look on his face. "Why didn't you tell me peoples' opinions were getting you down again? Shiki, you know I'm hear for you when you need to talk. Don't let other people's fucked up logic fuck you up. Be you. Not Eri, not anyone else, but you. And if anyone tells you otherwise, I'll punch their lights out. I seem to think you like it when I go into overprotective mode."

And the look on Neku's face was so innocent and knowing that Shiki had to push his arm playfully while she looked down and flushed. Was she really that obvious? "What can I say? You're cute when you're riled up." And as Shiki smiled at the image, she allowed herself to sit back down on the bed with Neku, and cuddle up with him; she could feel no Noise raging inside of her, so hopefully no more psychs would come from him…

Neku. He was so sweet. But sometimes Shiki wondered if they were too strongly connected. After all, his psychs has been reawakened because of her. Because when he unknowingly sensed the Noise meaning to come out of her, he tried to help her fight it off. Kissing Neku's chest, Shiki hoped that it would imprint on his heart all the things she could never say out loud: That she was sorry that she'd done this… And that she hoped his psychs would go away with her Noise, but she, sadly, wasn't too confident about it. Sometimes the way Joshua looked at Neku worried her. Like he was planning something…

"Well, at least one good thing came out of today."

"Huh? What's that?" As Shiki craned her neck upward to see Neku, she promised herself that as soon as she got a pair of scissors, she was going to cut her strands. Seriously. All that hair brushing against her skin made her hot. Why had she ever listened to people and kept her hair long? Even with it up, it was still a nightmare! Blinking a few times to get her bearings, Shiki looked to Neku with a smile and tried again. "Sorry, what, Neku?"

"Well, you know how everyone's obsessed with ghosts now because of what happened?" At Shiki's confused nod (she hadn't been expecting this topic to come up again), Neku took that as his cue to continue. "Well, everyone's accordingly obsessed with the color white now, too. Guess who's issued limited addition white Jolly Ranchers now? I'm so getting those!"

Leave it to Neku to be excited over something like _that_. Pushing his face away playfully, Shiki did end up laughing. Normally Neku only liked the blue Jolly Ranchers (and complained when he didn't get them); it was nice he was getting excitement for the new ones, even if that dumb misunderstanding they'd had with Shiki's parents inspired them. In fact, if she knew Neku, that was probably why he was happy about it. He was easily amused.

And just like that, as Shiki thought about the white Jolly Ranchers, she knew what had _really_ made her day. Whispering it in Neku's ear, she told him just what she'd realized. The words ended up winning her a kiss; she would hope with every fiber of her being that what she'd said to him would become true:

"If people are obsessed with white now, then maybe that means people will swarm Joshua! This ghost obsession is like the Red Pins thing; that's all people are thinking about now… Maybe now Josh will actually be forced to feel some guilt for that whole Megumi escapade."

And if Neku and Shiki hadn't been busy kissing for Shiki's cleverness, they might have checked Shiki's phone. Amidst all the text messages from their friends asking if they were all right, and if they'd figured out why Neku has psychs again, was a picture message from Mr. Hanekoma. The teens would soon find out the vision Shiki had imagined had, in fact, happened, and Mr. H had sent them a pic of it.

When they found out, Neku and Shiki would burst out laughing and hold onto each other to keep from laughing. For now, they just held onto each other lovingly.

It was just another crazy day in Shibuya, and amidst all the friendships, love, and ridiculousness, Shiki was glad she was living her life to the fullest… right alongside her Neku.

**Author's Note: So, this is why you don't write stories at 5:00 a.m. They end up really weird and random. Oh well. I wanted to celebrate the upcoming TWEWY sequel in some way, and I suppose this is how I'm doing it:)**

**I hope you all enjoyed! Especially since more people want me to write NeShiki; hopefully, I succeeded with them. Sometimes I think it's hard to write for the pairing…**

**Anyway, this entire story was inspired by when Sylvia almost shoots Will (by accident) in "In Time". Seriously. I have a crazy muse, but it went opposite in this story from what it did in that? If you haven't seen that movie, go watch it. It's brilliant, and one of my favorites. And who knows? Maybe then you'll get the joke then!**

**There are plenty of other fandom jokes in this, but I'm too lazy to talk about them. The main thing, though, about the blue Jolly Ranchers at the end, was inspired by this vid on YT: "TWEWY: Eternal Week - Halloween Special" by PandoraKrash. Watch that video if you want to get the joke.**

**And oh my gosh, there's no Joshyme in this story! They don't even come across each other! That's a first for me when it comes to TWEWY fics. Seriously. You have no idea how much of a big deal that is. I miss the pairing in this story. –sniff- Oh well. I was trying to make it more canon, anyway (amidst "Another Day-ish" crack). Yeah, I know I make no sense. **

**And as I have nothing else to say, I'm going to stop wasting your time. **

**Have a great day and review? Pretty please with sugar on top?**


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